by Annie Bryant
“What’s the prize?” shouted Henry.
“Um…the prize?” Charlotte glanced nervously at Mr. Moore. The prize part was something she’d just made up on the spot to get people excited. The truth was she had no idea what the prize would be. For Charlotte, just going on the adventure was prize enough.
“It’s a surprise, Henry,” Mr. Moore answered quickly. “To be announced at the prize ceremony.” Charlotte would have to thank the cow man later for coming to her rescue.
“You forgot the best part!” Avery blurted, then clasped her hands over her mouth, remembering that this was supposed to be Charlotte’s big announcement—not hers.
“Oh, yeah!” Charlotte said, remembering. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten. “The trip is a two-day hunt. Which means we’ll be spending an overnight someplace cool…by the beach!”
There it was—finally the cheers and clapping she’d been hoping for. Of course people would be excited about a big beachside overnight on the Cape.
Spending a night somewhere other than in your normal, old, safe bed is so thrilling, thought Charlotte. And she loved everything about Cape Cod—the beautiful sandy beaches, salt water taffy, sailing, and digging for clams. Before she and her dad moved to Tanzania, then Australia and Paris, they had spent several precious weeks on the Cape.
Kids were talking so loudly they could just barely hear the bell for last period ringing. Charlotte felt as though she were walking on air as she packed up her bag. Judging from the class’s response, it looked like the scavenger hunt was going to be a huge success.
“Dude! Where do we sign up?” Dillon shouted across the room.
“We must approach the captain of adventure!” Henry Yurt held out his arms like a game show host as he trotted up to Charlotte. “Team Yurtmeister is ready to win the jackpot!”
Charlotte pulled out the sheet. “The trip is on a first-come-first-serve basis. You have to bring back a signed permission slip and photo release form by Wednesday! We are taking only three cars down, driven by teacher chaperones, so space is limited,” she warned.
That announcement set off a mad scramble as kids tried to be the first to get their name on the list.
“Photo release forms?” Dillon asked. “Why do we need those?”
“Mr. Moore is going to film some of the trip for an AAJH Outdoor Adventure Club website,” Charlotte explained.
“I’m helping with the site,” Chelsea added. “We’re going to put some of the team photos up too.”
“Oooh, imagine if we were photographed by a TV station!” Maeve beamed at the thought of fifteen minutes of fame.
“You never know!” Charlotte smiled.
“Do we pick our own teams?” Riley Lee asked as he signed his name.
“No, Mr. Moore is organizing them.”
“Should we bring history books?” Betsy Fitzgerald asked, just as Danny bumped in front of her. “Who is fact-checking the clues?” he interrupted. “I could provide valuable assistance there.”
Avery was about to tell Danny to get real, but Katani grabbed her arm and shook her head. “He can’t help himself,” she whispered.
Charlotte did her best to answer all the questions and was relieved when Joline and Anna haughtily marched out of the room without making any comments or signing up. Nature and the Queens of Mean were not a good mix.
Besides, since the QOM paid way more attention to their eye makeup than they did to getting their homework in on time, they probably couldn’t go on the trip. Mr. Moore said that the trip was kind of a reward for turning in all your assignments. Charlotte knew Joline, for sure, was not up-to-date. “Schoolwork is so not my thing,” she’d proudly told Charlotte once.
As kids continued jostling around the desk, Charlotte noticed Kiki Underwood sprint into the room. Uh-oh, she thought. The QOM might be out of the picture, but Kiki was a totally different kind of royalty.
“Mr. Moore!” Kiki simpered sweetly. “Oh, thank goodness I caught up with you. Listen, it’s about that detention you gave me this morning….”
CHAPTER
2
All Boggled Up
If Anna and Joline were the Queens of Mean, then Kiki Underwood was the EMPRESS. Kiki didn’t just whisper mean things about you—she blurted them out loud…to your face…in front of people!
The BSG tried to make a point of not focusing on other people’s troubles. As Maeve often said, “you never know when the thunder and lightning are going to come crashing down on you!” But Katani, who couldn’t tolerate Kiki Underwood, was more than a little curious about what the Empress might have done to deserve a detention.
“No excuses, Miss Underwood,” Mr. Moore said sternly. “I know it was you who drew that mustache on my Lydia. There were several very reliable witnesses who came forward.”
Mr. Moore’s obsession with cows was weird and kind of cute at the same time, Charlotte thought. When Kiki had drawn a thick black mustache on Mr. Moore’s poster of a brown cow (whom he’d named Lydia) last week, she must have messed with the wrong farm animal.
“Please, Mr. Moore! I’ll do anything. I’ll even sign up for whatever volunteer thingy all those people are doing. What are we…feeding the homeless? Saving puppies? Helping old people? I’m in, I swear. I’m sorry about your cow picture, um, Lydia?…It was just a teeny tiny joke,” she simpered.
“Joke?” whispered Katani to Charlotte. “She forgot to add ‘mean’ before ‘joke.’”
Mr. Moore was firm. “As touching and heartfelt as your offer is, Kiki, what those people are signing up for is a privilege, not a punishment. It happens to be an overnight scavenger hunt adventure on Cape Cod.”
“Perfect!” cried Kiki. “My family has a house on the Cape. How about if instead of detention I host a huge barbecue blowout for the trip! There will be food and entertainment! It will be killer. Don’t you think that in the end a party for everyone would be better than me wasting a whole afternoon in detention? It would show my…my…team spirit!”
Mr. Moore paused for thought. “Well, Kiki, that’s very generous of you. But you’d have to be an active participant in the activity, and the rules state that you can’t come unless you have turned in all your assignments.”
“That’s no problem,” sang Kiki. “All my stuff is in. Duh. Why do you think I need to get out of detention? I’d have nothing to do there.”
“This isn’t exactly your usual crowd, Kiki,” Katani couldn’t help pointing out.
“That’s not very nice, Katani. I like everyone in the class.” Kiki pouted, pretending to be deeply hurt.
Katani could not believe what a good actress Kiki was. She would have to tell Maeve about Kiki’s potential…. She would make such a good witch!
“Well, I’ll give it a tentative yes,” Mr. Moore acquiesced. “The scavenger hunt is open to all interested students who have completed their work. If you’re willing to stay after and help me stuff envelopes with letters home about the trip, I can let you off detention. As for the barbecue…talk to your parents tonight and get their written approval.”
Kiki skipped out of the room with a superior-than-thou glance at the BSG.
“I can’t believe it!” Charlotte shook her head. “Kiki Underwood is coming on our first Adventure Club outing.”
Avery made a face. “The Empress of Mean coming on our trip really frosts my cookies.”
Isabel, who had fallen victim to Kiki’s stunts more than once, actually looked ill. “And I was so looking forward to this…,” she muttered mournfully.
Maeve decided she’d better step in fast. “Chin up, you guys! First of all, Char, this is the Adventure Club’s trip, not Kiki’s. Second of all, a party in a Cape Cod summer house—and you know Kiki’s place is probably amazing—is going to be fabbity fab fabulous! You all have to stop being such, such…Negative Nancys…Sorry Susans…Debbie Downers…Moany Monas…Whiny Wilmas…”
“’Kay, Maeve, we get the point.” Charlotte giggled.
“Boring Berth
as…”
“Maeve, enough!” Katani pleaded.
“Oh, before I forget,” Charlotte interrupted, “Mr. Moore only agreed to this trip provided that we had three older kids to chaperone. Nick’s sister, Fabiana, is coming and so is Chelsea’s brother, Ben.”
“Ben Briggs is coming?” Maeve gasped. “No way! He’s on the high school football team and is—no joke—a total dreamboat.”
Charlotte, Avery, Katani, and Isabel groaned in unison. Trust Maeve to turn an outdoor adventure into a romance novel.
“The point is,” Charlotte continued, “Avery thought Scott could come….”
“And he could! Up until yesterday,” Avery explained. “Then he found out this famous chef, Terrence Tortellini or something, was coming to do a special demonstration for his cooking class that weekend and he canceled.”
Avery’s brother was a total foodie. Nothing would stand in his way if he had the opportunity to work with a famous chef.
“Right,” Charlotte nodded. “So I was wondering, Isabel, if you could ask Elena Maria—or Katani, is Patrice busy?”
“Elena Maria is going to that cooking thing too. I already asked her last night,” Isabel offered. “Sorry, I meant to tell you before class.”
Charlotte turned to Katani. Seeing Katani’s blank face, she began to beg in her best fake English accent, “As a poor only child without an older sister to volunteer, I would be eternally grateful if your dear sister, Patrice, would consider accompanying us on this rollicking great scavenger hunt to beautiful Cape Cod.”
“Why, Charlotte Ramsey,” Maeve exclaimed. “That sounded so tragic! You should try out for the school musical with me. You could play Cordelia Weatherbee….”
Katani, feeling the pressure that this whole trip came down to her asking Patrice, tried her best to look positive. But she was worried. Her sister Patrice could be so difficult when it came to things you could win, like sports and…scavenger hunts.
Not wanting to disappoint Charlotte, however, Katani replied in an upbeat tone, “I’ll check.”
“Awesome!” Avery cried, clapping Katani on her back. “Patrice rocks!”
The girls waved good-bye. Charlotte and Isabel were off to a newspaper meeting, Maeve was practicing for the spring musical tryouts, and Avery had soccer practice.
Only Katani had her afternoon free…well, not exactly free. It was a Kelley day. Though Katani’s autistic sister, Kelley, was older than Katani by a year, Katani often felt like the older one. While her older sister was nearly a genius at remembering random things—like details of events or TV commercials, when it came to certain social stuff it was like Kelley just didn’t get it at all.
Katani loved her sister more than anything, but sometimes Kelley’s autism was hard for her to handle. Like today, when Katani had way more important issues to think about…for example, the Adventure Club trip and her having to ask Patrice to chaperone.
Katani kept thinking on her walk home from school that there were two major problems with Charlotte’s plan. The first, and biggest, was that Katani herself really didn’t want to go on the trip. She just wasn’t the outdoorsy type like her sister. The second problem was Patrice herself. She could be so bossy and loved to win. More like, has to win, Katani thought, sighing.
I like winning too; who doesn’t? But, really, she preferred indoor activities: math, science, sewing—things that required a steady table and nice, cool air conditioning. Biking for miles in unattractive clothes with her superathletic sister really wasn’t her thing. Of course, if we were on horseback, that would be a different story. Katani loved everything to do with horses, especially riding them. Riding was something that Patrice didn’t know how to do. In fact, Patrice was afraid of horses. But Patrice isn’t afraid of biking, Katani thought.
Unfortunately, Katani also realized, there was no way out of this trip. Charlotte, one of her best friends in the world, had organized it, and all the BSG were going. She had to go too. But now she was supposed to ask her sister Patrice to not only come but supervise! This was a disaster in the making. Katani could feel it in her bones.
When she reached her house, Katani dragged her feet up her front stairs like they were attached to blocks of concrete. Once inside, she was surprised to see that Patrice and Kelley were sitting at the kitchen table playing a game.
“Moat,” Kelley said with a wide grin.
“Aw!” Patrice shook her head. “Hey, Katani, want to get in on the next round? We’re playing Boggle and Kelley is beating me big-time.”
Kelley bit her bottom lip and seemed nearly giddy with excitement. “I learned Boggle today in school,” she revealed. “I was the best in my whole class. Boggle boggle boggle boggle. Who’s got the Boggle?”
There was one thing that all the Summers girls had in common: They were all competitive about something,
Katani shook her head. “Nah, I got a lot of homework to start. I thought you were just going to walk Kelley home and go off to practice,” she said as she cautiously took a seat at the kitchen table and grabbed a celery boat stuffed with peanut butter and raisins.
“Patrice and I made them,” boasted Kelley. “It’s ants on a bog! Bog-boggle-bug!” Kelley hooted at her little joke. She loved to play with words. The problem was that sometimes Kelley would go on and on rhyming and making weird word connections for days.
Patrice laughed with Kelley, and then confessed, “I’m loving spending time at home now that basketball season is over. It’s kind of boring to practice when the season is over, so I told them I had to Kelley-sit today. Besides, spending time with Kelley is da bomb!” She and Kelley slapped each other five.
“That’s great!” Katani said, trying her best to be supportive, but deep down inside she felt a little jealous of Kelley’s sudden infatuation with Patrice. Katani was used to being Kelley’s favorite and she wasn’t crazy about this new little twist.
“Now my only problem is figuring what I’m supposed to do on the weekends without games or practice. Two full days in a row…I’m gonna have to learn how to sew or something,” mused Patrice with a slight twinkle in her eye.
That did it. Sewing was Katani’s thing—there was no way she was going to compete with her sister at the one activity she loved most. “Hey, I might have something for you to do,” Katani began.
“Really? What?”
Katani bit her lip. “Well…next weekend there’s this outdoor exploration trip to Cape Cod. It’s an overnight-slash-scavenger-hunt type of thing. There are three teams and each team needs one older kid to chaperone. Ben Briggs and Fabiana Montoya are doing it. I know it must sound kind of babyish—”
“No! It sounds like a blast. I know Ben and Fabiana really well. What, do you guys need, like, one more chaperone or something?”
“Yeah, I mean, only if you’re not too busy,” Katani mumbled, secretly hoping that Patrice would say no.
“Busy! I’m wide open. Oh, Katani! This will be great! I can finally use all my camping stuff I got when I did that Outward Bound trip last summer. Seriously, I’ve got a compass, rope, water bottle, sleeping bag, lantern. Whoever gets to have me as their chaperone is gonna hit the jackpot, sister!”
Katani gulped. Patrice was already gearing up to win. Katani wanted to win as well, but heading into the great outdoors with her supercharged sister…she might as well give up before she started.
But she also knew better than to let Patrice see her defeated. “So you’re in, then!” she feigned enthusiasm. “Awesome! I’ll call Charlotte and let her know.”
“What about me?” asked Kelley in a panicked voice. “I want to be in too!”
“Oh, Kelley, I don’t think it’s possible,” said Patrice gently. The Summers girls knew better than to get Kelley’s hopes up, and there was just no way she could go along. Kelley had a knack for getting lost wherever they went. An outdoor excursion on the Cape with Kelley would spell disaster with a capital D. “This trip is just for seventh graders and high school people.”
Kelley’s jaw dropped. “That’s not fair, Patrice. You’re mean. Meany, mean, mean…a meany boggle bug.” She stood up in a huff and stomped out of the kitchen.
“Come on, Katani. Let’s get outta here!” Kelley shouted over her shoulder.
“Guess I’d better try to calm her down,” Katani muttered and jogged off behind her. Just like that, order had been restored. Katani was Kelley’s favorite sister again. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
Later that evening, just before bed, Charlotte saw that she had an e-mail. That’s weird, she thought as she saw it came from Mrs. Summers’s computer.
To: Charlotte
From: Mrs. Summers
Subject: Scavenger Hunt
Dear Charlotte,
I think it’s very mean that I can’t come to the scavenger hunt.
Your friend,
Kelley Summers
Charlotte wrote back immediately.
To: Mrs. Summers
From: Charlotte
Subject: Re: Scavenger Hunt
Dear Kelley,
I promise we will have another scavenger hunt that you can come on…real soon!
Your friend,
Charlotte Ramsey
CHAPTER
3
The Ice Cream Bandit Strikes Again
The week dragged on so slowly for Charlotte that she wondered if it would be possible to invent some way to fast-forward time. How great would it be to skip over the annoying parts and press play for the fun ones? She wondered what that would be like for each of the BSG. Avery would probably fast-forward everything that wasn’t soccer and recess, Maeve would pause her every moment in the spotlight, and Katani would skip all the way to her dream future as CEO of Kgirl Enterprises. Isabel would probably be the only BSG who might decide to play everything at normal speed—she wouldn’t want to miss anything beautiful or interesting that came her way.
When Saturday morning finally arrived, Charlotte leaped out of bed and ran to the window. She was pleased to see that her patience had been rewarded—it was a breathtakingly gorgeous day outside. The kind of day that just screamed, Hey, let’s go to the beach! And Charlotte, knowing that was exactly the plan, twirled around her room, feeling like she might just float away with excitement.
